Unopened Present
by Lover of Stories 24
Summary: Ino wants her Christmas party to be perfect. But fate has different plans. Mainly featured characters include Ino, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Sakura. And Asuma, but he's dead...
1. Part 1: It Will Be Perfect

"Girls are like shogi pieces? What the hell?"

He doesn't bother to avert his gaze from the sky. For once, his attention is not on the clouds. It is actually on the falling sprinkle of pearl – the first snow of the year.

"Nara."

A row of fingers flexes, elongates, stretches. A band of green fingernails claws across his cheek, painting a shriek of crimson against his face.

"No red," Shikamaru comments, brushing the droplets off.

"Excuse me?" Yamanaka mutters.

"Your nails – they're all green."

She blinks, then realizes what he is saying. Traditionally, she has worn red every year at Christmas. Supposedly it is a significant instance when she wears it, because unlike with Sakura, it is reserved only for the most special of times.

"I'm blonde," she says finally. "Red and blonde are like Gryffindor."

"…Isn't green a Slytherin color?"

"Hai. Silver, too." Ino gestures to the little silver bells on her emerald-knit cap.

"…"

"Slytherins are hawt," she explains.

"…Shallow much."

"What? You're comparing girls to shogi pieces, and I'm shallow?" she demands.

"Not that again. Just forget it, okay?"

"Gingerbread cookies?" Chouji offers as he comes outside, shutting the door behind him. In his hands is a plate stacked high with cookies.

"You can bake?" Ino asks, pleasantly surprised.

"Of course. All Akimichis can bake," Chouji replies, biting the head off an unfortunate teddy bear. "Well, except Chouko."

Ino considers scolding him for poking fun at his sister, as she usually would have, and perhaps even telling Chouko, but decides to spare him. After all, the cookies are good.

"Why are they teddy bears?" Shikamaru frowns, not being a fan of stuffed animals.

"Don't worry, Chouji. They're cute."

"…It was the only cookie cutter shape in the house. Chouko was trying to use the others…" A tear flits from his eye. "And they all died."

Dramatic.

"Well, thanks for the cookies, but I have to go. I have to set up for the party later tonight… And I haven't even got a present for Sasuke-kun yet."

Chouji blinks. "…Um, Ino?"

"I know what you're thinking. Sasu-kun won't be at the party, right?"

"Considering his status as a sadistic bastard and no longer an ally, the possibility seems rather low," Nara replies.

The air suddenly seems ten times colder, and not just because of the weather.

Ino shivers and toys with her jade scarf. "Merry Christmas," she smiles, and the words come out too loud, surprising even herself. They somewhat resemble the popping of a balloon.

The invisible little girl picks up the remains of her balloon and is still. She doesn't scream. Doesn't cry. Doesn't even acknowledge that her treasure has been destroyed. Yet her presence is felt, thick and suffocating. Waiting. "Merry Christmas," Ino says again, as if she is replying to herself. Then she is gone.

-x-

She has just finished hanging up the rest of last of the Christmas lights when the power goes out. Cursing, she fumbles about under the hold of dark in search of a flashlight or some other source from which the vast black expanse would flee. All she succeeds in doing, however, is stubbing her toe, which results in the birth of another expletive.

The Christmas party was to be perfect – perfect. She determined that it would make up for her anger with Shikamaru – and yes, she would admit it – with Chouji. Why Chouji? He didn't say anything to arouse her temper; the jokes about Chouko were trivial. And yet, that seemed even worse. The fact that he had the nerve to sit there and do nothing while Shikamaru defined her precious Sasuke-kun as a bastard.

Bastard ~_you_,~ Nara, she thinks, swallowing the urge to cry. To tell the truth, it is nothing Shikamaru hasn't voiced before. She doesn't know why she is being so sensitive about it now. Can she really lump it on the holiday? It has never made her so touchy before, so why now?

She knows it cannot be simply because of the power outage; since when could electricity control one's emotions? Perhaps it can destructively impact the life of one who lives solely off computers, but no shinobi is stupid enough to thrust so much dependence on mere power lines.

…Fine, there may be an exception. The stupid shinobi. Konoha's shame and sorry, thriving within the body of a blonde-haired— No, not Naruto! Although she can see why some would think of him, it is she who has been fixed with this curse of curses.

_Flick!_

The lights come back on, glorious in their shimmering melody of red and green and ivory white. They remind her of what she was like as a young child, always fascinated by something or another so much that she was blind to any cause for pain. Like a moth feeling its magnetic pull towards light, unable to comprehend that the joy will be short-lived.

She blinks, and the magic is gone, just as it has come. The lights are just lights, nothing more. Her head aches, and it is chilly enough to get through to her bones. The tree standing proudly in the corner with all the airs of royalty is a nothing but a fake, a lowly peasant fashioned by man.

She has never had a real tree, for such a thing would leave bits and pieces of itself on the floor, and make so much more trouble to clean up. As her father has said, a fake one is much more convenient. It can be reused, year after year, supposedly breeding a friendship.

There are other things familiarity can breed however. Boredom. Discontentment. Weariness of the same thing, over and over again.

Perfect, she remembers suddenly. Today is to be perfect. And it will be.

She dons a smile – a perfect smile, and promises herself perfection. If she cannot achieve that, all is lost.

A knock sounds at the door, and Chouji marches in with Shikamaru and Sai.

"Your house looks quite lovely," Sai says with a plastic smile, probably reading off a note he has written on his hand.

Ino knows this means he thinks the place is an ugly wreck, but decides to dismiss it. After all, Sai is Sai, and she can't expect him to change just so she can maintain her peace of mind. She should probably be grateful he hasn't complimented ~_her_~.

"I have enough cookies to feed an army," Chouji announces, setting down a tin almost as large as his stomach. "I hope no one ate too much lunch."

"I'm sure they'll get eaten," Ino reassures. "Shikamaru-san, do you have all the presents?"

"Yes," he mutters, clearly not enjoying the weight the bag is forcing on his back. With seemingly great effort, he plops onto the couch, slinging down his load. "What's the point of Secret Santa when everyone already knows everyone else?"

"To make new friends--" Ino pauses mid-recitation, shrugging. "I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas."

"Troublesome," Nara sighs, as is customary.

"…Sai, what are you doing?" Ino asks as she notices his unnaturally bright smile.

"Practicing," he replies, not moving from his spot underneath the mistletoe.

"Don't do that when the guests get here, okay? You're going to creep them out."

Sai frowns, consulting his book. "Pleasing people is not as easy as it is said to be."

"Yeah, yeah, we've heard," Shikamaru says, suppressing a yawn. "Why don't you go draw something?"

Chouji, having emptied a bag of chips, decides it is time to do something. "We still have an hour before the party starts. Let's go skating."

"Have fun. I'm not letting anyone steal my spot," Sai says.

"Good for you. Just try not to scare everyone away," Ino orders, grabbing a pair of skates. "You coming, Shikamaru?"

"…" Wordlessly, he rises to his feet. After all, he doesn't want to be alone in the house with Sai, does he?

* * *

Author Notes: This was originally started for a Naruto Christmas fanfics contest at Storywrite dot com, but I lost the notebook I was writing it in and didn't find it again until the contest ended. T.T Anyways, this is dedicated to Morning Star (the owner of the contest) and to Yamanaka Ino. Oh, and before I forget, Chouko is not one of the real characters from Naruto. She's not mine either. She belongs to Gem (her screen name on this site is Aburame Megumi). I felt like mentioning Chouko, although she wasn't featured prominently.

Disclaimers: All characters (besides Chouko) are from Naruto (Shippuden) and belong to Kishimoto-sensei. And Chouko belongs to Gem.


	2. Part 2: The Fall and its Aftertaste

The ice is slippery, and the skates are a bit too wobbly for her taste. She isn't sure whether she can rely on them. But they're what she has, and she'll take what she can get. It is the same with her friends.

"Ino! Wake up!"

Her eyes flash as the sound of her name being shouted brings her back into focus. But the warning has come too late.

While lost in her own thoughts, she was not paying attention to what she was doing. Consequentially, she is tripping over something – what it is she doesn't know, but it must be something – and everyone knows what comes after the trip. The fall.

She closes her eyes and tries not to scream, not wanting to make a bigger fool of herself than she already has. She doesn't think she can take being laughed at right now. Her hands jump out to close the distance between her frame and the ice, attempting to prevent her from suffering anything too serious – but her legs get there first.

That's when the ice cracks.

The bitter taste of gelid water soaks into her bones, penetrating her like kunai. Except that in this case, she can't dodge them or pull them out. The kunai are everywhere – above, behind, below, right and left. All at once.

They lure her last bit of oxygen, which apologizes shortly to her before running off with them. She feels betrayed… And cold.

Through the crack in the ice, a hand appears. It is too blurred for her to tell whose it is, and then everything is gone.

-x-

"Ino."

Her eyelids jerk open like a blanket cover torn off the bed. "What time is it?"

That's the first question out of her mouth. Nothing about what happened, where she is, what condition she is in – none of that concerns her. She's been planning this party for months in advance; she needs to know if she missed it. Now.

Chouji looks scared to answer her, dreading her reaction. "Well… It's six o' clock..."

"Of the 26th," Shikamaru finishes for him just as Ino is about to smile in relief.

"…Oh." Just oh. She can't say anything more than that. It hurts too much. Quietly, she fingers the lace at the neck of her white nightgown, trying to find some solace from its texture—

White. Nightgown. When did that happen?

"It's my fault. If I hadn't said we should go skating--" Chouji begins, only to be cut off.

"Why am I wearing this?" Ino growls, something twitching in her forehead.

"What?"

"This!" Ino wails, gesturing to the white nightgown. "I wasn't wearing this when we went skating, bakas!"

"How should we know?" Shikamaru drones, unconcerned. Then he slumps back in his chair, asleep.

"You little creep!" Her eyes are nearly red at this point, a warning sign that a hurricane is nearing the shore. Her fingers grab the first thing she can find – which happens to be the handle of a hot iron – and prepare to launch it.

"This is not good," Chouji whimpers, dropping his bag of chips.

"DIE!!!!!!"

The iron flies straight over their hands and out into the hallway, crash-landing against the door to the room across from hers… just as it is closed by a certain bubblegum head.

"Okay, what are you people DOING!?!?" a frazzled-looking Sakura howls, rather red in the face. "You could have killed me just now!"

"Gomen nasai. I have bad aim," Ino says prettily. Not even she wants to mess with the sleep-deprived Haruno. Such a thing obviously cannot end well.

"Oh, it's you," Sakura mutters. "Seriously, Ino-pig… You're embarrassing to have as a friend. What were you ~_trying_~ to hit?"

"Shikamaru's head." Ino shoots him an evil glare. "Look at this nightgown!"

"We didn't do anything," Chouji protests, wondering how Shikamaru can be sleeping through such chaos. It's true that they both stayed up all night, but still…

"Then why am I wearing this!?!?"

"They didn't," Sakura snaps, smacking Ino on the head. "A nurse dressed you, okay? Your other clothes had blood on them--"

"Okay, where's the nurse? I owe her an iron in the head," Ino mutters darkly.

"…Wait, what?" Chouji asks, marveling at the inner workings of Ino's brain.

"Why are you so mad?" Sakura demands, slapping Ino on the head again. "Crazy pig!"

"BECAUSE THIS NIGHTGOWN IS FLIPPIN' UGLY!!!!"

"That's my flippin' ugly nightgown… You ungrateful little hog!"

"Don't call me a hog, FOREHEAD!"

"Why?! You're always HOGGING the stash of Sasuke-kun photos!"

Dragging Shikamaru like a sack of potatoes, Chouji tiptoes out of the room amidst the quickly-becoming-incomprehensible insults… And comes back shortly to retrieve his bag of chips.

-x-

When one of the nurses comes in to check on the patient, she is surprised to find Ino awake… and even more surprised to find Sakura slacking off from her work to yell at the girl.

"Sakura-san. Hokage-sama is looking for you… And when she finds out what you've been wasting the past hour on, she's not going to be happy."

Sakura sighs in acknowledgement, removing her fingers from Ino's newly disheveled hair. "I know. Ino-pig, I've got to go... But we can have the party tomorrow, if you're allowed to leave the hospital."

"Wait, what? Didn't it already happen?" Ino asks, wrinkling her forehead as she has a tendency to do when confused.

"Of course not, pig… You're the one who planned everything. We weren't going to have it without you." Sakura waves and leaves. "By the way, you might want to check yourself in the mirror…"

"Here's your dinner," the unknown nurse adds, handing Ino a tray piled with food.

The door clicks shut, and Ino's stomach growls at the sight of her feast. Among the display are fresh fruit, rice, sweat bean soup, a bowl of dumplings, and even an assortment of pocky sticks sporting red and green stripes.

But before she takes a bite, she considers Sakura's comment on her appearance and quickly grabs the handheld mirror from the table by her bed. Her hair is a complete mess, due to the recent exchange with Pinkie. Sakura must have tried to get it as tangled as possible.

She tries to walk over to the bathroom, then realizes there is some sort of jutsu on her legs to keep them from moving. Dread creeps slowly over her mind like a dense fog, and her face loses its color. What is the meaning of this? Does the hospital staff simply think it is not good for her to be walking so soon… or is it something worse?

The silent question prods at the back of her mind, refusing to leave. Just how bad are her legs?

She notices a button on a ledge attached to the bed, and remembering its purpose, she presses it down with a murderous intent, as if it is an enemy she has pinned to the floor.

"Ino-pig!" Sakura growls as she marches back in through the door a few minutes later. "Do you know what you've done? I was just getting close to the front of the line when I got sent to help you! Now I'll have to start all over again at the back of the line, and it's probably gotten longer by now…" Her voice trails off as she notices the weakness in Ino's eyes. "W… what is it?"

"My legs." Ino doesn't look her in the eye. "How bad are they?"

Sakura smiles, relieved. "Oh, that's all… Your legs will be fine. You'll just have to wear a cast for a couple months. Oh, and Tsunade-sama doesn't want you to walk more than you have to for the first week… On the bright side, you won't get any missions until your leg's healed."

Ino's face falls. "I guess that's good news… But I can't do anything for a week?"

"I didn't say that. Just don't strain yourself." Sakura looks down at Ino's tray. "Why aren't you eating? You can't regain your strength if you don't eat." Her hand darts out to steal a piece of pocky. "If you don't want it, I do."

"Go ahead." Ino is speaking unusually quietly. "I don't feel like eating anymore."

"Oh…" Sakura almost feels disappointed. If Ino was herself, they would be fighting over the pocky. She doesn't know why, but she misses Ino's loud spirit. "If there's anything you want, just let a staff member know. And it's up to you to reschedule the party."

Ino blinks, suddenly remembering something. "If you guys didn't have it without me, what were you all doing?"

"Well… some of us went sledding. But Shikamaru and Chouji stayed up all night waiting for you to wake up. They're probably sleeping now."

"Oh…"

They wasted their Christmas in a hospital?

"Hey… If I'm allowed to walk, why is there a jutsu on my legs?"

"Because you aren't wearing the cast yet. Shizune-san will come around later today to put it on… I'm sorry you have to wait. We have a lot of patients right now."

Ino shrugs. Although she can understand what her friend is saying, her mind is elsewhere. "Sakura, could you bring me a laptop?"

"Sure. I'm sure Shikamaru won't mind if I take his."

* * *

Author Notes: My brother was laughing at me for making it seem like Ino couldn't swim. He was all like "Shinobi that can't swim!?" Well, whatever. It worked for the story. I'm sorry for saying you can't swim, Ino… (Or maybe I never said Ino can't swim, but she couldn't in this instance because of her broken leg? =P)

Oh, and for those of you who review (please do, it really makes a difference!), tell me what you think about having the writing in present tense. For example, I said "Ino's face falls" instead of "Ino's face fell." I've been experimenting a little with the present tense stuff, and it's fun. It's different, though. Every once in a while I'll slip and write something in past tense, and then I'll have to catch it and fix it. So, I guess what I'm asking is, does the present tense stuff flow well? Or do you like past tense better?

Disclaimer: All characters from this chapter are from Naruto (Shippuden) and belong to Kishimoto-sensei.


End file.
